You have to feel sorry for Reflections. The developer always comes close to greatness with its video-game creations, and then ruins them in the last six months of development. Which is a shame for those wanting a playable version of Stuntman that wasn't tediously difficult, or a successful and different take on the "freeform" style of GTA play -- which DRIV3R isn't. Instead, we're "treated" to an overly ambitious effort to re-create three gigantic metropolises, in which vehicles can realistically careen into each other in spectacular collisions, and a single-player plot following the tribulations of the grindingly monotone-voiced and slightly overweight Tanner; the least interesting video-game hero since Trevor McFur invaded the Crescent Galaxy.

This mangled monstrosity, almost single-handedly devastated by a limp and linear single-player game and a shocking lack of extras (more on those in a moment), seems to seal this franchise's fate. However, you can't overlook the accomplishments this game has made; it's got three painstakingly rendered cities that take days to learn the routes of, dozens of off-road alleys, and a Jay Leno-sized garage full of the best-looking, non-licensed vehicles that crumple and ding with satisfying practicality. It's just a shame that the game fails where it counts, though, isn't it?

Reflections is quite happy to tell everyone it was first to implement a GTA-style romp in a 3D space. We're just as happy to tell Reflections that it'll be the last developer to replicate actual innovative GTA gameplay to any of its own titles. The stink of this game's failure doesn't waft in for a while, though, so prepare for some high-production values and the promise of a playable Hollywood action blockbuster from the time the stunning initial CG cutscene starts. This sets the scene for the "rollercoaster ride of action" Atari wants you to believe is in the game.

Against the crowded and slightly dilapidated streets of Istanbul, a gunfight starring Tanner, his cop pal Jones, and arch-nemesis Jericho begins with all the subtle and understated nuance of a Jerry Bruckheimer movie, but with one important aspect missing: the blood. Cops, lead characters, and even Tanner take blasts to the chest/cranium/groin and fly backwards with no oozing red stuff to be seen, and there's none in the game, either. Did Atari try for a "Teen" rating with the ESRB? Probably, but it didn't get one, and anyone expecting "realistic violence" isn't going to be happy, a fact made all the more ironic as the plot takes its seriousness to almost pretentious levels. Any semblance of humor is removed and replaced with second-rate action flick fare that Steven Seagal would have trouble signing on for.

But let's get back to that opening CG. It sets the tone for all of the subsequent cutscenes (gritty, confrontational, and featuring characters that come from one of three pre-rendered body types, and have their jaws wired shut when they talk), and single-handedly ruins the game's conclusion by revealing it! Great! The "real" game starts in a monumentally large facsimile of Miami six months earlier, with Tanner driving around South Beach, entering a police station, and staggering through an on-foot training area where the cracks in the game's glaze begin to appear. Once you figure out the imprecise aiming setup and clunky movement, you'll wonder why the developers failed to make Tanner so more limber. He's slow to move, sluggish to aim, and can't jump (or climb) over anything higher than his knee. That's a surefire way to ruin the grandeur of the game right there. But no matter, because you'll spend the majority of the game's missions in cars. As Uncle Gary Numan always tells us, it's the only way to live.